Waiting for K.J.
By Cosmo Garvin
cosmog@newsreview.com
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 Fifth-grade teacher Carlos Rico says much of the reform agenda being pushed by Kevin Johnson and others will undermine the teaching profession, and ultimately students. PHOTO BY MIKE IREDALE |
Related stories this week: Who will fix our schools? Can Sacramento public schools be fixed? Let’s ask those vying for a spot on the school board. School board candidates: Area 1 Online only answers to SN&R’s endorsements questionnaire. School board candidates: Area 2 Online-only answers to SN&R’s endorsements questionnaire. School board candidates: Area 6 Online-only answers to SN&R’s endorsements questionnaire. |
If you haven’t yet seen the movie Waiting for “Superman,” you probably have a sense of its main message: Schools are failing American kids, largely because teachers unions have too much power and have blocked needed reform. Even people who haven’t seen the film have an opinion about it.
Like the dozen or so parents and teachers who protested the film’s opening in Sacramento on October 4—marching with signs saying things like, “Stop blaming teachers,” or the ever-popular “Where’s my high school?” or “Real reform = smaller class size.”
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has been evangelizing about the film for weeks—holding two special screenings of the film in Sacramento. He has his own long history of fighting the unions here in Sacramento over his own St. Hope